YMCA Runner's Club

Well, well, well. I ran 3 miles today without pain. I did feel some tightness near the end so I walked the last half mile. I'm thinking the Turkey Trot is totally do-able tomorrow! Might not PR, but that's fine.

There's a costume contest so I'm dressing up as an Indian. My son keeps calling me Sacajawea but I was leaning more toward Pocahontas....lol. Someone I know has a few Indian props and one of them is a papoose! How adorable is a papoose??? My husband is coming too, he'll get some pictures and if I look as sexy as I think I'm gonna, I'll post 'em.

Back to Runners Club:

There were 3 of us there today, I figured there wouldn't be too many because of the holiday. My sidekick, Mike (LOL) and our newest Endurance team member, Chris and I headed out. Chris admitted he wasn't feelin' much running love today. I admitted I was still breathing impaired and Mike was in his usual form...always ready. We went with an 11 minute pace...at first...then we got talking and found ourselves at 9 min. By then Chris was into it, like I knew he would be and I found a comfy breathing pattern. If you can call it breathing. We settled into a 10 min pace.

It was a nice leisurely run. We stopped at the bridge and saw huge talapia swimming around. There were about 20 of them. There was a HUGE turtle laying on the weeds. Probably 24 inch in diameter sized shell. We skipped the Garden Of 5 Senses Park, reluctantly for me, but the guys were uninterested today. Now that I know how to use the sundial in there, I get such a kick out of it.

Here are a few pictures of the park... Here's the sundial.

Pretty waterfall...... Cabbage garden........

Oooohhhh, a park bench! There's a bench swing in there too.

I lay on it with my iPod sometimes, when I'm needed some

alone time. Very relaxing place.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. Eat, drink and BE MERRY!

Kisses and hugs to all,

Kim

Mission Accomplished

YAY! I ran with the Runner's Club today for 2 miles. My knee was sore, but never got too painful. The funny thing was my left knee felt twingy too, so I don't know what that's about. Right now I'm feeling fine. I'd LOVE to run another 2 miles tomorrow and see how it's going but I'll follow the "easing into it rule" for once and take tomorrow off. Well, kinda. I have a spin class at 8:45 I cannot miss.

Chris ran today and did very well. I predicted yesterday that I really thought he'd wind up doing the full marathon and I couldn't wait to see how he felt by his 10 mile run. While a group of us were talking about training for the half, he said "I'm going to run the full." Just like that! I almost fell over! I knew he had it in him! I am thrilled! Then come to find out, he HAS run a half. Not sure how I missed that...maybe because he calls the half marathon "the mini". Yes folks, I know. I finally explained he can't be calling it "the mini" in front of other runners. We'd eat him alive....LOL

I am enjoying running with Chris, he's new to distance and very open to the Galloway method (of which I have embraced). I've always said the reason I love running is because of HOW I learned to run. To have this opportunity to give back what Jim gave me as a coach just feels so awesome. Oh, and Chris called me "coach"...how COOL is that??? Smart guy....lol

Mike ran with us today too. He showed up with two speakers STRAPPED to his body and proceeded to spew forth some funky music. Loudly. Sigh. I should have seen this coming, he's been talking about how cool it would be to have music but be able to hold conversations at the same time. I saw the red flag. I heard the proverbial bell. I know Mike. LOL...I love the guy, don't get me wrong, but today was HYSTERICAL...LMAO! I was trying to talk to Chris and Mike had some kind of meditaion stuff playing...I love Enya but not for running. I couldn't even hear! Mike's lucky I love him, that's all I can say....LMAO!

Steve is the Youth Sports Coordinator at the YMCA and he just started running with us too. He's a sweetie pie! He's 21 years old and doing a great job with the kids over at the YMCA. He just started running so I can't get him to commit to anything, not even a 5K....YET. I'm really hoping to get him into running the half in Sarasota. I know he can do it. I just KNOW it!

My Blog Brother GQ has a knee injury. I'm sending him some healing vibes through the internet, hoping he's healed for his first Turkey Trot next week. He is doing the right thing by resting, icing and taking his Birthday son out for dinner. And getting him a gerbil. (sucker....lol) I can foresee the gerbil blogs coming!!!!!

Runner's Club at the YMCA

We run every Friday morning together. It's a great time to talk about times, aches and pains, races etc. Jim, my trainer, has had to miss the last couple of weeks due to other commitments so Mike has been running with us instead. Mike is a speedy guy....LOL...at first he was KILLING me because he keeps a steady 8 minute mile and I'm SUPPOSED to be training on a MUCH slower pace for the marathon training. But being the competitive woman I am, I try to keep up. This is so wrong of me on so many levels. It proves I have no self control. Sighhhhhh....yeah, so anyway...Maria decided to join us this morning too. She's even faster than Mike. She can run so fast she's like a blurr. I knew all week I was running with these two maniacs. (I'm saying maniacs in a loving way) Here's the conversation I had with myself on the ride over to the gym.....

SELF: Ok, now you know those two are fast.

KIM: Yes, yes I know!

SELF: This is your chance to stay true to your pace time.

KIM: Yeah, but how about we TRY to keep up and see what happens??

SELF: Don't be ridiculous. PRACTICE YOUR PACE TIMES!

KIM: Jim won't even know, he has a training. (snicker, snicker)

SELF: PFFFTTTT....you know I'll tell, I have a big mouth. Besides, if you can't control yourself NOW, you won't in the marathon either. Then you'll fizzle out in the 5th mile.

KIM: I hate talking to myself, you drive me crazy. (turns up the radio)

So I get to the gym and stretch out. I kept telling Mike and Maria I was going to do my pacing. I told them not to wait for me. I emphasized how slow I was going to go. What a joker I am. I ran right beside them. SIGH, no self control.

By the time we got 1/2 way there I could feel my body asking me ever so politely why we were not doing our pacing. I ignored myself. I'm really good at that. I told Mike and Maria I was only doing 2 miles at this pace and they decided to stay with me. On the run back I did do the power walks. I had to, my lower left leg muscle was killing me. I pulled it on my 14.4 mile run last Saturday. Oh, did I mention I ran 14.4 miles last Saturday????? (HA!!!, still feeling proud) Also, I saw Jim on his way past us....LOL. I wasn't too far behind Maria so I'm sure he knew I wasn't doing my training. The sweet man never said a word...LOL. I think he knows by now I'll tell him anyway.

By this time Mike had pulled up ahead of me. Just for kicks I decided to sprint past him. OH THE SHEER SATISFACTION of passing Mike!!!! Hahahaha!!! I guess I should confess one thing....Mike had sprinted in the beginning to catch up to us, we started at the back of the gym, he started in the front. So in his defense he did his sprint earlier, which makes it harder. Maria used this time for the warm down, so in reality (my own of course) I also sprinted past MARIA! YEAH BABY!!!!!!! This is why I love the Friday morning runs (OK, that's sounds so gross....) I love these Friday morning practices. Yeah, that sounds better, but I'll leave in the weird sounding remark for your reading enjoyment. I love it because it's fun. These people are so nice. I have been enjoying every minute of training for this marathon.

Mike is going to come by my house in the morning and run 5-7 miles with me, depending on my leg muscle. I'm seriously going to do my pace training, I swear. I have a pace band for the marathon that should get me finishing the marathon in 4:59 (thanks Joe) I'm going to use it in tomorrows run.

I'm going to promise to run my pace training times tomorrow with Mike. There. I put it in print. Now I have to do it. I haven't broken a promise to my blog friends yet, have I? No, I haven't.

Thanks for being here guys. I'll be back!!!